Jan Dizon, Tech Times

Many viewers felt they were let down big time by naturalist Paul Rosolie, who's TV spots on the Discovery Channel claimed a scientific first – he would be voluntarily eaten alive by an Anaconda.

However, as Rosolie lay on the ground, covered in pig's blood, pretending to be easy prey for the wild anaconda, Rosolie called it quits after being constricted for the two hour special, for fear he would be crushed to death for real and his oxygen supply would run out.

 

According to reports, Rosolie spent months recovering from the experience and he assured animal rights groups, as well as fans, that the snake used for the show was unharmed during the filming process or its aftermath.

Many viewers were outraged in what they felt was a cop-out. And took to twitter to express exactly how disappointed they were about not seeing a grown man get swallowed alive, literally, by an anaconda.

Others tweetwed that being #EatenAlive in a more, shall we say, scandalous nature, would have been more entertaining. (Warning, NSFW) Others were still echoing the animal welfare sentiments that came out when Discovery first started teasing viewers about the special.

Many viewers said the special should have been more appropriately entitled, Cuddled Alive, or some other more befitting adjectives.

— Lizzie Molyneux (@LizzieMolyneux) December 8, 2014

Despite the backlash, host Rosolie maintains that he did the show for the sake of raising awareness to save the rainforests and for animal conservation.

According to his posts on twitter, although the show may not have had the gory ending that everyone was morbidly anticipating, he feels that the show was much more important that ratings and publicity stunts.

“I came up with the idea because I really wanted to shock people. It is a stunt, but the reason behind it is actually something that’s very serious and substantial,” he said in an interview last week.

“People give a lot of attention to animals like jaguars and monkeys, because they’re furry and they’re beautiful. Fewer people are emotionally attached to a big scaly scary reptile, but at the same time, it’s a very charismatic species. People are scared of it, they’re interested in it, they’re fascinated by it. It’s a good flagship species to use to tell people not just about the anacondas themselves but about the whole ecosystem,” he also said.

And it seems that although the hate tweets are flooding the #EatenAlive hashtag, many still remain supporters of Rosolie and his efforts.

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Tags: Eaten Alive Paul Rosolie Anaconda Twitter Twitter Hate Hate Tweets Discovery
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